Transport Water and Lava

Water and Lava can be useful Raw Materials, making for attractive landscape features and providing useful defenses against Mobs. Create a Bucket and you can use it to store up 1 still source of (not flowing or moving) water or lava, allowing you to transport the materials and place them wherever you'd like. Be careful with the lava in the vicinity of wood and forests because fire will spread and burn down everything. You can also try to create a cobblestone generator using lava flowing into water.

Explore Caves and Mines

Each world you generate comes with an assortment of caves and mines that you can explore. Those caves and mines are typically unlit, and thus will spawn lots of mobs. Be sure to bring Torches with you and spare wood if you find some more coal or break a tool.

When mining with silktouch be sure to bring another pick to mine coal if you need it, or just craft a stone pick at the spot.

Caves and mines are excellent sources of rare raw materials like iron, gold or even diamonds. In some mines, you'll find structures like abandoned mineshafts and within these minecart chests stuffed with rare items like Melon Seeds, pumpkin seeds, or even diamonds!

Create a Portal to the Nether

There's a parallel universe in Minecraft called the Nether. It's a scary place filled with unique mobs and, more importantly, unique raw materials. To get to the Nether you'll need to craft a Portal out of Obsidian, which requires the mixing of water and lava. A diamond Pickaxe will help, but check out the Portal page for tips on getting to the Nether realm without the help of diamond chiseling.

Making a trip to the Nether is certainly not something to be taken lightly, as it is filled with dangers such as lava lakes, Zombie Pigmen and Ghasts. However, it does make for a nice challenge.

And if you get sick of the nether you can always check out this music video The yogscast uploaded on youtube! (The yogscast is a group of gamers that are most commonly know for their minecraft minigames, playing custom maps and taking looks at some of the mods that are made for the game)

Constructing a Nether Portal

What you Need: 14 (or 10) Obsidian, Flint and Steel, Diamond Pickaxe

To construct a portal to the Nether, you need to create a portal frame in a 4x5x1 Shape (Length, Height, Width), with the inside 3x2x1 hollow.

The four corners can be left out or replaced (hence the 10 Obsidian mimimum) if a 'cheaper' portal is required/wanted. Once the frame has been constructed, the player needs to right click the portal frame with a flint and steel, which will cause the portal to be activated.

Venturing into the Nether

What you Need:A Weapon to defend yourself, preferably some Armor to protect yourself, and a pickaxe in order to gather materials you can only find in the Nether.

The Nether is a dangerous place. It is a land filled with cliffs and dangerous lava lakes, but the main danger of the Nether is the ghast. The ghast has the ability to shoot fireballs at the player, which will explode upon impact and set things on fire. Refer to the ghast section for tips on how to deal with them. The Nether is also filled with Zombie Pigmen, which turn hostile once attacked. Fortunately, they're easily avoided if you don't provoke them. (don't, they are very strong and fast!)

When in the Nether, currently there is not much to do, but certain items can't be found anywhere else. Examples include netherrack, which can stay alight forever, soul Sand, which slows anything that walks over it, and glowstone, a placeable block that emits light.

In the 1.0 update, the functionality and uses of the Nether were expanded. New items, mobs, and nether fortresses were added, the nether is also the place for potion ingredient gathering.

Find Diamonds and Other Rare Materials

Dig, dig, dig. You'll find many rare raw materials by digging deep mines. Different materials become more common the deeper you dig. You'll know you've hit the "bottom" of the world when you reach Bedrock, dark black-and-gray-colored blocks that cannot be destroyed.

Creating a Farm

You may also wish to create a farm and fill it with animals. First construct a pen of your own design. Use natural blocks or Fences as walls and a Gate to provide a means of entry. Next, get some wheat and wave it in front of an animal's face (holding it your hand will do), or take tie them with a lead (easier). This will get the animal to follow you until you put it away. Then, maybe try your hand at Breeding by feeding them wheat!